BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WLVT) - B. Braun, a global leader in health technology, with a campus in Bethlehem, recently received FDA clearance for a breakthrough ‘smart needle’ that allows real-time needle tip tracking. Onvision helps anesthesiologists accurately position needle tips inside the body while administering regional anesthesia.
"There are microsensors in the tip of the needles which nicely show up on the ultrasound monitor or the screen, and so Onvision then can accurately indicate where that tip is inside the body, helping anesthesiologists accurately and safely and efficiently administer the medication that they want, precisely where they want it," explains Chief Medical Officer at B. Braun, Dr. Wes Cetnarowski, "Therefore helping them achieve the clinical outcome they are after."
With about 15% of all regional anesthesia proving ineffective after single-injection and as the Lehigh Valley reports its highest increase of COVID-19 cases since July, this new technology will soon be launched at a time when many want to avoid long-term hospital stays and reduce admittance time.
"Patients with regional blocks or regional anesthesia typically go home sooner, receive physical therapy quicker, and it promotes faster healing and better outcomes," Dr. Cetnarowski tells PBS39. "But talking about getting out of the hospital faster, today in this COVID time, patients should absolutely get in and out of their procedures and in and out of the hospital as quickly as possible to avoid any additional COVID-19 risk."
In regional anesthesia procedures, accurate needle placement is crucial for success. B. Braun says their technology tracks where a needle tip is inside the body both in and out of an ultrasound’s viewing plane; helping anesthesiologists and surgeons cut down procedure time and patients get home faster.
Dr. Cetnarowski says, "Some hospitals are having a difficult time accommodating all the patients that had delayed their procedures in the first big alarming wave of COVID-19, and now the recovery rooms or post-opt rooms are a bottleneck in the system."
B. Braun and electronics company, Phillips, have been working together to make Onvision technology a reality for the last three years.